“Nightfall should be a challenging test that only the bravest Guardians dare face. Fireteams of any size should be able to participate, from organized clan groups to skilled solo players. Players should be able to determine their own challenge level, by going slow and steady or fast and wild, with elective modifiers to test the most hardcore veterans.

Your final score will separate the best from the rest, and with high risk comes high reward. Each terrible villain that players face should have a very rare and powerful unique item, themed to them, that tumbles to the ground as they collapse into a pile of bones. Conquering Nightfall should be a badge of honor, with the best players able to show off their achievements with new dynamic emblems and exclusive auras. That’s the vision of where we want to take Nightfall, you’ll be seeing the first of this direction in the next patch, with more being added over time.”

Players will be able to show off their Nightfall skills via new emblems, which will display your best scores. Here’s how the new scoring system will work:

Scoring is team-based and the sum of individual performances. A team should be able to focus on what works best, not feeling put out by who stole whose kill.

Scoring is primarily driven by kills and secondarily by orb generation. We want you to find what works best for clearing strikes instead of telling you which weapons to use, but we want coordinated use of Supers and other team support mechanics to contribute to high scores. We’re interested in restoring special point awards based on medals, but we want your input to understand the basic meta first.

Score bleeds over time. We are watching this closely — score decay can feel bad, but all else being equal, a team that clears faster than another team should score higher. Score decay achieves this in the most transparent fashion.

Scoring cuts off after time thresholds. At 15 minutes, new points earned are reduced by 50%. At 18 minutes, you stop earning new points and it’s a race to finish the run and post your score. We want time to matter, but a good Nightfall clear shouldn’t feel like a slog.

Challenge Cards will offer ways to boost the challenge in exchange for score multipliers. In 1.1.3 there will be a challenge card that drops from completing a Nightfall run. It has some customization options to help tune the challenge level to what you and your fireteam are capable of.

Bungie’s blog post also touches on changes coming to Prestige Raids. Starting soon, players will be presented with different challenges each week through a curated “loadout mode.” This new option will require players to use specific weapon loadouts and modifiers, which Bungie hopes will add a new level of replayability and challenge to Raids.

Destiny 2’s Nightfall changes will be included in update 1.1.3, which drops at the end of this month, while Prestige Raid loadout challenges will arrive in May alongside Season 3. Destiny 2 is available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.